India’s Sawan Barwal brought glory to the country by winning a historic silver medal in the men’s marathon at the Asian Games on Saturday, 26 September. He completed the race in 2 hours 11 minutes 37 seconds with a personal best time. With this performance, Sawan gave India an Asian Games medal in men’s marathon after 44 years.
India had earlier won the marathon medal in the Asian Games in 1982 during the Asian Games held in Delhi. Since then, India had not got any medal in this event.
How was Saavan’s game?
Sawan Barwal finished second in the race behind Ichitaka Yamashita of Japan. Yamashita won the gold medal with a time of 2 hours 10 minutes 49 seconds. Peiyu Feng of China completed the race in 2 hours 12 minutes 13 seconds and won the bronze medal.
Sawan Barwal performed brilliantly during the marathon and remained at the forefront of the race for some time. By the halfway mark of the race, he had reached second place. At that time he had recorded a time of 1 hour 5 minutes 54 seconds. Another Indian runner Kartik Karkera also took part in this race. At the halfway mark he was in 17th place among 19 runners.
Sawan finally won the silver medal with a time of 2:11:37. He was 48 seconds behind Japan’s Ichitaka Yamashita who won the gold medal.
Who is Sawan Barwal?
Sawan Barwal was born on 18 February 1998. He is a resident of Radabhankar village of Joginder Nagar area of Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. He is an Indian track athlete and marathon runner.
Sawan is working as a Havildar in the Indian Army and is serving in the Engineering Corps. He has been a long distance race and half marathon runner. Later he turned to marathon.
How did Sawan come to the marathon?
The advice of his fellow army personnel and mentor Mohammad Yunus Khan was also important in his participation in the marathon. To prepare for the Asian Games, Sawan was training at the Reliance Foundation Center in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu. Ajit Marcos is coaching him. Earlier, he had trained under the guidance of army coach Younis Khan at the Army Sports Institute, Pune.
48 year old national record broken..
Sawan Barwal had achieved a big achievement in the history of Indian athletics in April this year. He broke the 48-year-old Indian National Marathon record of Shivnath Singh in the NN Marathon Rotterdam held in Rotterdam. In this marathon held on 12 April 2026, Sawan had recorded a time of 2 hours 11 minutes 58 seconds. Earlier, the national record of Indian marathon was in the name of Shivnath Singh, who had recorded a time of 2 hours 12 minutes in Jalandhar, Punjab in 1978.
The special thing was that Rotterdam Marathon was Sawan Barwal’s first elite marathon. He finished 20th overall with a time of 2 hours 11 minutes 58 seconds. In the last phase of the race, he fell about 150 meters before the finish line, but despite this he returned and completed the race and broke Shivnath Singh’s record.
National record in half marathon also?
Sawan Barwal’s record making series is not limited to marathon only. In the year 2024, he created a national record by recording a time of 1 hour 2 minutes in the half marathon in Delhi. After this, in April 2025, he won the gold medal in 10,000 meter race in the 28th National Federation Senior Athletics Championship held in Kochi. During this time he also made a meet record.
After this performance, he qualified for the Asian Athletics Championships to be held in Gumi, South Korea in May 2025. By winning the silver medal in the Asian Games, he has achieved another big achievement in his career. This medal is also special because India had won the previous Asian Games medal in men’s marathon in 1982 in Delhi. This achievement of Sawan has ended the long wait of 44 years.